John A. Zoidberg (Futurama Series)
Dr. John A. Zoidberg,"M"D, better simply known as Zoidberg, (born May 5, 2914) (height: 5'8"), is the heptagonist in Futurama. He was born on the Planet Decapod 10 and moved to Earth to practice medicine after giving up comedy once. Despite being a self-proclaimed expert on Humans, he called Fry "young lady" when they first met and has confused Fry and Bender. He speaks, as all Decapodians do, with a heavy Yiddish accent. He is the nephew of famed eccentric movie celebrity Harold Zoid. On a number of occasions, Zoidberg has made mention of Hermes Conrad being his best friend.1 Zoidberg is actually the alien discovered in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947.2 He seems to live in various places around the Planet Express building, notably the Dumpster, in which he has been seen numerous times looking for food and shelter. Zoidberg himself confessed to "living in a dumpster" in 3011, presumably the Planet Express building Dumpster.3 A conversation Zoidberg has with Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth suggests that he is only staying with Planet Express because of a life debt to the Professor. A series of flashbacks reveal that Zoidberg first met and befriended Farnsworth in 2927, during a mission to kill a Tritonian Yeti for Carol Miller. During the mission, Zoidberg was attacked by a Tritonian Yeti but is saved by Hubert, who is scratched by the Tritonian Yeti. Hubert now fears that he has contracted Hyper-Malaria, a painful, fatal, incurable disease which can either strike instantly or remain dormant for years. He asks Zoidberg to perform a mercy killing if he ever exhibits symptoms of the disease. Grateful for the Professor having saved his life and killing the Tritonian Yeti, Zoidberg agrees. As a result, Zoidberg is employed by the Professor for the purpose of carrying out the task. He is technically homeless and very poor, being a very unsuccessful "internal medicine doctor". Although claiming it was lost in a volcano, it is very likely that Zoidberg does not actually have a medical degree but rather has a doctorate in art history.4 Despite his professional incompetence, he has been drafted into the Democratic Order of Planets army as a MEAT surgeon.5 He is extremely poor and has stated several times that he has no home. Even worse, he is even treated like a social pariah by mostly everyone around him. Hermes considers him as practically a slave and does not hesitate in treating him like one. He usually eats from the trash or a dumpster, mistaking the trash for food and is envious of even the smallest amounts of money due to his lack of knowledge in currency and economics. Another factor of his poverty was mainly the fact that Hermes kept cutting Zoidberg's paychecks for no reason. He is excitable about his friends and is very trusting with the Planet Express crew. He appears to be rather fond of all of them, only really disliking Bender. Most of the crew (except possibly Fry, Hubert, as well as Amy) finds John (or at least his species) to be disgusting as he will eat almost anything and his extreme "incompetence" as a doctor has done nothing for his popularity. Although, sometimes the rest of the crew will be nice or care for him, except maybe Hermes. A composite of numerous sea creatures, Zoidberg's features have been myriad. The most unique feature is his inability to feel physical pain. An example is in the episode "Roswell that Ends Well", Zoidberg is aware that he is getting dissected without anesthesia but he doesn't feel any type of pain as he gets dissected. His known attributes include a removable exoskeleton, a retractable head fin that indicates arousal, aggression, or fear, an ink gland, a "stink gland", a gland that emits foul odors when he's bored, an empathy bladder, a gas bladder, a freshwater stomach, a saltwater stomach, four hearts, a throat that apparently produces psychedelic blue pearls, as well as a "wazoo". This last item is apparently some sort of sex organ, the place where the "male jelly" comes out for the mating of his species. It has been revealed that passing on genetic material is a life-terminating event for these lobster people, so while the good doctor once informed Leo Wong that he 'took the liberty of fertilizing his caviar' for him, it remains ambiguous what actually transpired. Along with a "wazoo", Zoidberg also has gonopores, as revealed in Neutopia when everyone's gender is taken away, when he looks in his pants and promptly yells "My gonopores," and then tells everyone to "look it up."6 Zoidberg reverted through several of the early "larval" life cycle stages of his species after being exposed to a youth tar. He seems to have started off as a small immobile creature from which asexually fragmented "brothers" could separate (each with a distinct personality). A later stage was a parasitic lamprey, followed by a large clam inside which his head was visible. The next oldest form resembled a trilobite. Other stages included a sea urchin and a cuttlefish.7 Zoidberg is indirectly and unintentionally responsible for a number of disasters and misfortunes which befall Earth's people, including their enslavement by the Decapodians due to their overreaction of Zoidberg eating a flag and sentencing him to death after giving him an unfair trial. Due to his alleged overacting in a TV series finale, the people of Earth are denied the Omicronian recipe for eternal life. He is also partially responsible for the near sale of Planet Express to MomCorp, due to foolishly trading all of his stocks to That Guy for a sandwich, which grew moldy because he kept it in his coat pocket. That near sale was, however, mainly Fry's fault. Zoidberg is also the alien that supposedly crash landed in Roswell. Personality Trivia Gallery Category:Futurama